Air pollution in Kazakhstan is another significant environmental problem. Acid rain damages the environment within the country and also affects neighboring countries. In 1992 Kazakhstan had the world's 14th highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 297.9 million metric tons, a per capita level of 17.48 metric tons.

One of the largest global environmental disasters in the recent history which is being experienced by countries and the population of 62 million people in Central Asia, is the tragedy of the Aral Sea that in its environmental, climatic, socio-economic and humanitarian consequences poses direct threat to the region's sustainable development, health, gene pool and future of the people residing in it. The Aral Sea, which was once a unique, beautiful and one of the largest closed water reservoirs in the world, is practically on the verge of complete disappearance and turned into an unprecedented disaster and irreparable damage to the life of the population living there, the ecosystem and biodiversity of the Aral Sea. Until 1960 the Aral Sea had an area of 68.9 thousand km² with the volume of water 1083 cubic km, its length extended to 426 km, width - 284 km, the greatest depth was 68 m. The Aral Sea area was a region with a wide variety of flora and fauna, 38 species of fish and a number of rare species of animals inhabited the Aral Sea basins, the number of saigas reached 1 million heads, the floristic composition comprised 638 species of higher plants.

In addition, the Aral Sea played an important role in the development of the region's economy, its production sectors, in ensuring employment of the population, and in the formation of a stable social infrastructure. In the past, the sea was among the richest of fishing grounds in the world: the annual catch of fish in the reservoirs of the Aral Sea was 30-35 thousand tons. More than 80% of the inhabitants of the Aral Sea coast were engaged in the production, processing and transportation of fish and fish products. Fertile lands of the delta of the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers, as well as highly productive pastures provided employment for more than 100 thousand people in the sphere of livestock, poultry farming, growing of agricultural crops. The sea also served as a climate-adjusting reservoir and mitigated the sharp weather fluctuations throughout the region, which had a favorable effect on the living conditions of the population, agricultural production and the ecological situation. The air masses invading the region during the winter period warmed up, and in the summer were cooled over the water area of the Aral Sea.

In the 1960s the problems of the Aral Sea arose and took on alarming proportions as a result of thoughtless regulation of the major transboundary rivers of the region - the Syrdarya and the Amudarya, which provided the Aral Sea in the past with 56 cubic km of water annually. The significant growth of the population living in this area, the scale of urbanization and intensive development of lands, the construction of large hydrotechnical and irrigation facilities on the watercourses of the Aral Sea basin in the past, without taking into account the environmental consequences, created the conditions for desiccation of one of the most beautiful reservoirs on the planet. A direct consequence of the desiccation of the sea was dramatic climate change, felt not only in Central Asia, but also in other regions. The Aral Sea crisis zone directly covers the territories of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as indirectly - Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. On the bare part of the Aral Sea a new salt desert with an area of 5.5 million hectares appeared.

Over 90 days a year, dust storms rage over it, spreading over 100 million tons of dust and poisonous salts into the atmosphere for thousands of kilometres each year. Streets of rage remake 51 download. The threatening impact of the Aral catastrophe is observed all over the world today.

According to international experts, poisonous salts from the Aral region are found on the coast of Antarctica, on the glaciers of Greenland, in the forests of Norway and many other parts of the globe. To the great regret, today it became obvious that the revival of the Aral Sea to its full condition is already impossible.

The most important task of the present time is to reduce the destructive impact of the Aral Sea crisis on the environment and livelihoods of millions of people living in the Aral Sea area. Since the beginning of the 1990s, all countries experiencing the devastating consequences of the Aral catastrophe, from the rostrum of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations, have been constantly drawing the attention of the world community to the Aral problem and its close relationship with regional and global security issues. At the 48th session of the UN General Assembly on September 28, 1993 and at its 50th session on October 24, 1995, representatives of the countries of the Central Asian region appealed to the world community to help save the Aral Sea, drawing the attention of the United Nations to the fact that without support and assistance of international financial institutions and developed countries and without the leading role of the UN it is impossible to solve this problem.